Leave Her to Her Drinking Games
by stumpyy
Summary: Sarella Sand, disguised as Alleras the Sphinx at the Citadel in Oldtown challenges Lazy Leo to a drinking game in hopes that he will leave her friends alone. Some mayhem ensues.


Disclaimer: All characters and the world of A Song of Ice and Fire belongs to George R. R. Martin and I am not making any profit out of this whatsoever.

Leave Her to Her Drinking Games

It was a typical evening at the Quill and Tankard. Pate, Mollander, Roone, Armen sat around their regular table in a corner of the inn, some sipping, some gulping down the locally renowned cider. There was an empty chair between Roone and Armen, a chair normally occupied by Alleras The Sphinx, the darling of all the serving wenches of Quill and Tankard, a brilliant acolyte and a disappointment of all Archmaesters who wanted him as a follower. Alleras chose to shadow Archmaester Marwyn, nicknamed "Marwyn the Mage" whose keen interest in magic put him in the bad books of most other Maesters of the Citadel.

Sarella was terribly late, this made her feel uncomfortable as she was never late for evening festivities with her friends. But today was different, for months, she has been trying to come into confidence of Archmaester Marwyn, and today he has promised her to show her a page of the _Signs and Portents. _Even before coming to the Citadel, in Dorne, Sarella spent hours reading Marwyn's "The Book of Lost Books" and even though she suspected the Archmaester was jesting when he told her she could read one of the infamous lost pages, she still took her time cataloguing all the new books in his collection just for a small chance to do so.

"Excuse my tardiness," said Sarella and pulled out her chair, smiling her usual soft smile.

"Can you at least make an effort to look less pleased with yourself," said Armen the Acolyte, his message was scolding, but his tone wasn't serious.

"I was slaving in Marwyn's archives," said Sarella, "and fell asleep half-way through."

A white lie, but then again all of her friends knew her as Alleras anyway and were completely unaware that she was a woman. Apart from that she made considerable effort to stay as truthful to her friends as she could. Even in saying that she was "no lord's son" she didn't lie. Her father was, after all, a Prince.

"I think you are seriously wasting your time," said Mollander, " look at Lazy Leo for example, he has been trotting after the Mage for over a year now and hasn't gotten anywhere."

"Is this how you choose to offend me, Mol," inquired Sarella, "by comparing me to him?"

None of them really liked Leo, although Sarella always suspected that the lad was more talk than anything else. Growing up amongst her sisters, the Sand Snakes, made the experience of the Citadel very strange for her, instead of being surrounded by women she was now almost constantly in the company of men, and after a year at the Citadel she could feel herself understanding them more. According to her observations men were the simpler sex and perhaps that was why they never seemed to give enough credit to their fairer counterpart.

Rosey, who has spotted the new addition at the novices' table approached with Sarella's usual order, a goblet of sweet amber wine from the Summer Isles. Sarella was always curious as to why she was popular with the serving wenches, perhaps the vanity of women was to blame and they were simply drawn to Alleras' feminine good looks and lean physique.

"So, how are my friends doing this fine evening?" came a soft voice from behind them as they spotted the subject of their conversation. "Who wants to buy me an Arbor gold?"

"No one ever wants to buy you anything, lazy oaf," muttered Pate under his breath. He had a special disdain for the Tyrell acolyte as he often threatened to woo Rosey the serving wench who had a special place in Pate's heart.

"Let's see, I'll buy you as much Arbor gold, or Dornish red as you want, until you can drink no more," Sarella proposed. "Which one of us passes out first pays for everyone's drinks for the next fortnight."

She expected him to decline, hence the proposal in the first place, because although Leo was a Tyrell his progress at the Citadel wasn't as quick as his family expected of him, and Sarella knew for a fact that recently his allowance has been cut significantly, hence the constant begging.

"Is this another one of your riddles, Sphinx?" asked Leo suspiciously. " 'Cos you certainly look like a lightweight to me, what's in it for you?"

Ignoring his last remark, Sarella quickly ordered a goblet of Arbor for Leo and another sweet amber for herself.

As soon as the drinks arrived, Leo started mercilessly gulping his down, already finishing 2 by the time Sarella was done with her first goblet. Leo's arrogance, months without even a drop of wine and his fast drinking pace got the better of him three goblets later, when Sarella was on her fourth goblet. By this time it was clear that the wine was making his stomach upset, his speech slurred and his eyes glazed and distant. Sarella's gaze was also slightly unfocused but all the wine did to her so far was make her merrier than usual. Her friends and other patrons of the inn cheered along, the cheers for Alleras significantly louder than those for Lazy Leo.

Soon enough Leo was all over the place and was lying his head down on the table, which was now full of empty goblets, while continuously reassuring the Sphinx that he is good to go and he will soon stark drinking the hell out of them again. Sarella was pretty sure he was constantly reverting in and out of his consciousness but didn't do anything about it until she finished 2 more gobbles of wine over what Leo already drank.

"Yeah, I think he is out of it," confirmed Roone, poking him in the face with a turkey leg. Upon hearing his confirmation the whole of Quill and Tankard cheered for the champion.

Sarella payed for all the drinks and ended up leaving an overly generous tip as she was in no state to be counting silvers by this point.

_You, little shit,_ she thought, _I can't exactly leave you here like this, since I am responsible. _

"Alright lads, you stay here and be merry," the Sphinx instructed her companions, in a voice louder than her usual, sober tone, " I'll get this drunk ass back to the Citadel…"

After slapping Leo from his unconsciousness Sarella found that the lad was far more receptive to her suggestions than normal and with her help, managed to get up and out of the tavern. After leading him out into the open air Sarella sat him down on one of the benches by a fountain in a small stone-paved square. Out of her sandy brown, worn out satchel she produced a skin filled with fresh water and proceeded to drink half of it slowly but surely.

"Here, drink this, slowly, it will help with the headache," the cool night air sobered her up considerably, but perhaps not as much as the weigh of responsibility did.

Leo took the skin and started sipping and slowly, much to Sarella's satisfaction, she always liked it when people did what she told them to do. Unfortunately, his hands weren't very steady and a lot of water spilled out before Sarella could help holding the skin for him. The peaceful silence was suddenly interrupted by Leo's drunken brawl.

"You knaaw, you are really purty, like a g..girl."

A melodic thrill of Sarella's laughter resonated through the empty streets. _If only he knew,_ she thought. But one had to keep up appearances…

"If this is your idea of a complime…."

Her comeback was interrupted by a kiss; a wet, sloppy sort of kiss, but a kiss nonetheless. Sarella must have been more drunk than she previously thought, because surely that was the only reason why she found herself kissing Leo back.

The kiss didn't even last a heartbeat until Leo pulled away and emptied the contents of his stomach onto the pavement. This snapped Sarella right back to reality.

"Alright, let's get you home."

A week later, after he was forced to sell most of his fine clothes for all the drinks he owed Leo no longer looked like a lord's son and whilst his shameful defeat was somewhat clear in his head the rest of that night was a blur at best.

Sarella, unfortunately, did not drink enough to forget.


End file.
